Aid worker from Bangladesh kidnapped

Afghanistan  A Bangladeshi aid worker helping to administer anti-poverty programs in rural Afghanistan has been kidnapped, his employer said Sunday. It was the latest in a string of abductions of international workers here.

Noor Islam was seized Saturday from a branch office of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee in Logar province, south of Kabul, according to the organization's Afghanistan director, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Islam, who is about 40, "was working in the office when some men came and took him forcibly," the director said. "We don't know who they were."

Logar's governor, Abdullah Wardak, told the Reuters news agency that four men dressed as police officers kidnapped the aid worker and stole about $600 from the group's office. He said the organization had ignored warnings to hire security guards.

It was unclear whether the kidnappers were Taliban insurgents or common criminals, Wardak said.